On the heels of the recent announcement that the popular Cartoon Network series Ben 10 would be the unlikely recipient of an international game show spin-off, CN is now dropping news that a feature film will be coming from producer Joel Silver's (The Matrix, Assassins) Dark Castle Entertainment.

Dark Castle is an interesting choice for the movie. They make sense given that they work directly with Warner Brothers on the regular. At the same time, it's a little off-course for the kind of productions they're responsible for, namely the kind of "experience" horror films popularized by their namesake, the legendary William Castle. Dark Castle is the company that brought you Gothika, Thirteen Ghosts, The House on Haunted Hill (it was fun, dangit!), and more recently, the criminally overlooked Splice. However, a quick look at their IMDB page reminds me that recently they've mixed it up with Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla and the Losers big screen adaptation.

This isn't the first time shape-changing Ben Tennyson has gone live action--that would be 2009's Ben 10: Alien Swarm which, in a surprise to me, was directed by Freaked writer-director and once and future Bill S. Preston, Esquire, Alex Winter.

Here's a couple of money quotes from the press release:

“I cannot think of anyone better suited than Joel Silver to develop a theatrical action-driven adventure based on our BEN 10 franchise,” said Snyder. “As a producer of mega-hit movie franchises like, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon and The Matrix, to the successes of Sherlock Holmes and The Book of Eli, Joel has both the passion and movie-making know-how to turn BEN 10 into a spectacular theatrical experience for our fans.”

“In BEN 10, Cartoon Network has built a property that is loved across the world,” said Silver. “It has a fun premise with a great leading character that lends itself to the big screen and I am looking forward to seeing how we can take it to the next level.”